Andy, Kendrick and I met up with the majority of the AMRC hut trip crew at the trailhead for the 4 mile and ~2000 ft skin to the Opus Hut. The snow was super warm so it caked onto our skins and gave my hip flexors more than their fair share of agony. We arrived exhausted but happy to be in the mountains. Surprisingly there was no staff to take care of us, so we made ourselves comfy. A couple beers later, night had descended but there was still no staff to cook dinner so we decided to cook up a big pot of spaghetti. (The following day we learned that there was some miscommunication with the staff and a last ditch effort was abandoned because of avy concerns.) All was well though - we fired up the sauna, built a ping pong table, and partied the night away.

The following day we did low angle laps on the pass and got some nice turns in. The snowpack danger was high (4/5) so we knew we wouldn't be skiing anything super exciting. My hip flexor was angry so I didn't stay out too long, but I did take a sunset lap with Andy and Bill.

The next day Justin and I tried to trigger an avalanche (while he was on belay), but no dice. The snowpack had solidified with the freeze thaw cycles. We skied some nice powder and then suffered back down the icy road to a Zia Taqueria lunch. Fun times with the mountain rescue family.

"A group of friends from Albuquerque Mountain Rescue spent the weekend ski touring at the OPUS hut in Colorado's San Juans in March 2015. The full moon and strangely warm weather was perfect for slipping away from the extended apres party to snag a picture of the cozy building."